Challenge Starts!!
9 Months Left In The Year!
If you get focused, you can get a lot done in the next nine months. And learn a lot and have a lot of new books and products out for readers. That’s what these challenges are all about.
Even though I am writing this on the 1st, I won’t start officially counting until after I wake up.
Here is how the challenges will work, both half and full.
Every week on Monday (My week will be from Monday to Sunday night), I will post my consumable words written here that week on this blog to the right. They will be total from April 1st onward.
Then on both the half and the full challenges, I will post a video every week not only talking about the week, but also some tips and suggestions on how to get by things. Oh trust me, I will run into a lot of “things” along the way.
Your task each week or every other week or when you want, write me an email with your total for the year so far and if you are half or full challenge. You can report in Monthly if you want. Just not more than weekly, please. I will get confused.
Just a word count number that is total for the nine months so far, and if you. have learned something. No excuses, please. Just positive in your reports.
Subject Line… Challenge Half or Challenge Full depending on which one you signed up for.
The half-price sale for anything on WMG Teachable is still going on, so you can get these challenges at half price. (See last posts for details.)
Any questions, feel free to write me.
Here we go! This will be great fun!
(Oh, Wait, some Math!!)
If I think Monthly and want to write 1,000,000 words by December 31st, I need to average about 112,000 words per month of consumable words.
If I think Weekly and want to write 1,000,000 words by December 31st, I need to average about 25,645 words per week.
If I think Daily and want to write 1,000,000 words by December 31st, I need to average about 3,670 words per day.
Consumable Words, meaning anything that will be consumed by the general public, such as this blog post, introductions to books, fiction of any length or type, poetry, nonfiction books.
Emails and social media do not count. Responses to WMG course assignments DO COUNT, since you might take those and make them into stories later. Got a question about that, write me.
Full challenge needs to match whatever I do over the nine months. Half matches half what I do.
(By the way, this blog post is about 460 words long and will not count because technically this is still March 31st for my writing day. Tomorrow I start.)
12 Comments
Harvey Stanbrouigh
I’ll be shadowing you, Dean. Looking forward to it.
dwsmith
Harvey, with me coming out of the eye issues, you’ll kick my butt I am sure in the total, but I could give you a run in the fall. (grin)
Harvey Stanbrouigh
Meh. I’ve been in a slump. Just coming out of it, in part with a new Bradbury Challenge of at least one story per week for (in my case) 100 weeks. Of course also continuing with novels, but I’ve only written one novel this year so far. Last year at this time I had six. Anyway, nine of the followers of the Journal (https://hestanbrough.com) are playing along with me too. I report their numbers every Monday. As you well know, it’s a great way to exercise the story-idea muscle and jumpstart writing again.
Graeme
Looking forward to seeing how I get on with this — I signed up for the half challenge. Getting anywhere near the likely number would be the most I’ve written in a year by far, so even a loss would be a win considering the practice I’ll be getting.
A decent chunk of my words will come from the Short Story Great Challenge I’m also doing, but it’s a really good incentive for me to write regularly during the week.
And it might be the excuse I needed to start a blog, too.
dwsmith
Remember, there is no losing in this. You get credit no matter what happens for more workshops and learning. Extra words and more learning. Sounds like a win/win to me.
Eli Jones
OK, I’m in for the half challenge. Watching the introduction video on Teachable was the final kick I needed to dive in.
dwsmith
The first weekly video will be up there on Monday, even though it is only two days into the challenge.
Colleen
Jumping in to join you – and looking forward to it!
Jonathan Coker
So looking forward to this challenge as well. When I’m not writing on a regular, I’m haunted by not writing.
Thanks again for offering the challenge, it is going to be a lot of fun.
Kate Pavelle
I’m in for the full thing. Joining forced me to address some long-neglected issues, like my website and my inventory. I updated them and discovered that I have a ton of stories I haven’t done anything with yet. Therefore, I set up a Free Fiction Friday tab (copying what Kris is doing, with sales buttons and everything,) and I posted my 2nd free story this week. It forces me on a schedule of making covers and so forth.
Also, the inventory has some highlighted works I never finished, so I’ll get back into those unless a new and entirely brilliant idea takes over.
There is a certain amount of tension between “Whatever I’m writing must be fun” and “You must finish what you write.” It requires discipline to dive into an old piece just to figure out whether it’s still fun or not! (So far its been good though.)
Happy writing, everyone!
James Delrayne
Well, I just signed up for the full challenge. A few days late, but that’s a tiny hurdle.
I’m already in the other four challenges, and this one is the icing on the cake. It’s my first year as a full-time author and, after a bumpy start, my goal is to reach Pulp Speed 6.
When I sat in December asking myself, “Should I be a writer?” the only answer I could give myself was, “If you’re going to do it, give it everything.”
Now it’s time to collect on my promise to myself.
It’s going to be great fun.
dwsmith
Oh, trust me, James, you write at that speed and get everything out to readers and build a reader base under one name, you will do great. In fact, you will do in one year what it takes most writers to do in five years. So keep it fun, and make sure you hands and arms are in a good position and that you take breaks every hour.